Health

• Determinants of health are the factors that influence how likely we are to stay healthy or become ill/injured
• Four key determinants of health: Social, socioeconomic, environmental, biomedical
• Social determinants of health are the non-medical factors that influence health outcomes
• 11 social determinants of health: stress, work, unemployment, early life, social gradient, social support, social exclusion, addiction, food, transport, culture
• Environmental determinants of health are external factors to an individual
• 2 features of environmental determinants: natural/built up environments and geographical location
• Biomedical determinants of health relate to an individual's genetic/biological makeup
• 2 biomedical determinants: birth weight and body weight
• Socio-economic determinants of health are based on an individual's social position in society compared to others
• 8 socio-economic determinants: employment, housing/neighbourhood, income, education, family, access to services, food security, migration/refugee status
• Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and improve their health
• Strategies of health promotion: Behavioural, Environmental, Structural
• Behavioural strategies require individuals to change factors within their control to improve health
• Examples of behavioural health promotion: raising awareness, education, providing incentives to change
• Environmental strategies are outside the control of the individual
• Examples of environmental strategies: Legislation, community development, capacity building, policies
• Structural strategies improve individual and community access to resources
• Examples of structural strategies: Community development, policies, capacity building
• 5 Action areas of the Ottawa Charter for health promotion:

  Build healthy public policy

  Strengthen Community Action

  Create Supportive Environments

  Develop personal skills

  Reorient health services
• Examples of build healthy public policy: - Drink driving laws, compulsory wearing of bike helmets
• Examples of strengthening community action: Community groups
• Examples of creating supportive environments: Lighting at local parks, vending machines selling healthy food
• Examples of developing personal skills: Health education programs
• Examples of reorienting health services: Helping indigenous communities
• Beliefs: An underlying conviction about an issue or concept

  Values: The worth and desirability attributed to items or qualities

  Attitude: Feelings towards situations, people or things

  Behaviours: Actions that reflect values, beliefs and attitudes
• What factors form beliefs, values and attitudes

  Prior experience, Family, Culture, Peer group, Religious beliefs, Social norms and expectations, Technology
• Cognitive dissonance: The state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially relating to behavioural decisions and attitude change.
• Health Belief Model: A model that explains and predicts an individuals changes in health behaviour
• Concepts of the health belief model: Perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, cues to action and self-efficacy
• Perceived susceptibility: Beliefs about the chances of getting a condition
• Perceived severity: Beliefs about the seriousness of a condition and its consequences
• Perceived benefits: Beliefs about the effectiveness of taking action to reduce risk for a condition
• Perceived barriers: Beliefs about the material and psychological cost of taking action
• Cues to action: factors that activate ones readiness to change
• Self-efficacy: Confidence in one's ability to take action